Lawson Partners, Outlines Web HR Tools

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October 19, 1999 (2:04 PM EDT)

ERP vendor Lawson Software on Tuesday outlined new directions for Lawson Insight II Analytic Suite 2000 and released its first component Workforce Analytics, which will draw on a new partnership with the Saratoga Institute for workforce performance data.

Workforce Analytics is performance management software that provides Web-based human resource tools combined with data analysis tools and metrics for workforce measurement. It tracks and measures a company's strengths in areas such as employee recruitment, staffing, training, compensation, and benefits. The software gives managers access to performance indicators such as cost per hire, accession rate, retention rate, add rate, replacement rate, time to start, and offer acceptance rate.

The pre-packaged performance indicators come with benchmarks provided by Saratoga, a unit of Interim Services, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. These include financial metrics, human resource benchmarks, and other information designed to help managers base decisions on quantitative performance data.

Lawson's software offering may be on the verge of a boom cycle, said Harry Morris, vice president of data warehousing and information access at International Data Corp. ERP applications will turn toward more analytics, creating a growing market for performance management software, especially after companies get past the Y2K problem. This market will grow 30 percent next year, beyond the growth rate of the ERP market overall, he said.

The Minneapolis-based developer, which is perhaps best known for its reach into the health care vertical market, discussed the product and partnership with Saratoga at a news conference in Boston. The privately held company said it is on track for an initial public offering in 2000.

"Today's announcement plays into our e-business focus," said Richard Lawson, CEO. "At Lawson, e-business and enabling Web technologies that go with it are the focus of our entire line of business solution. We have created e-business solutions for each vertical market -- health care, retail, business services, and human resources."

Lawson said he prefers to think of the company as an enterprise application provider (EAP) instead of an ERP vendor. EAPs, he said, take into account managing relationships with customers, partners, employees, and vendors.

Lawson executives said the relationship with Saratoga is not exclusive, but that Lawson is the first ERP vendor to team with the provider of data to analyze, diagnose, and demonstrate patterns of relationships between business actions and human resource results. Saratoga benchmark methodology will also be included when the other Lawson Insight II Analytic 2000 components are rolled out, executives said.

Workforce Analytics also includes Lawson's Web-based "ijob" tool for employee recruitment. The Internet tool uses information gained from Workforce Analytics to more efficiently use the Web to hunt for job candidates.

"Now you bring in the combination of Workforce Analytics tied to performance benchmarking tied to e-business Internet recruiting," said Judith Rothrock, Lawson, vice president of corporate communications.